Your Wonderful Missionary: Christmas Eve E-mail from Brother Winks

Your sweet missionary had fondue dinner with us and helped frost angel sugar cookies for goodie plates. Now we are ready to go caroling.

Glad to be working with her in our ward.

Scott Winks (ward mission leader)
Rebecca,
Linnise (blonde)
Clarissa
Charlotte (glasses)

Week #20: Then Cometh the Blessings

Hello! And Merry Christmas!

This week has been pretty spectacular! We've seen all the blessings
just come in a flood (along with some literal flooding- luckily
nowhere near us) and we've been able to just have a lot of fun! We
have also had a lot of meetings- a trainer/trainee meeting on Tuesday
(President Anderson gave me a yellow motorcycle) and zone conference
in Gresham on Wednesday which was amazing! It's been a pretty crazy
week.


First story- A few weeks ago, Sister Slattery and I met this really
nice lady, Felicia. She was busy right then but had said we could drop
by again in the afternoon sometime. Well we went back this week and
she meant It!! She invited us in and we had an awesome conversation
with her and she promised to read the Book of Mormon and invited us
back tomorrow, even though it's nearly Christmas! It was pretty
amazing. Hopefully her family will be on board as well.

Second story- we were out and had about an hour left before we headed
home, and we weren't sure where to go. So we prayed and we walked down
a street and we turned around to walk back and go a different
direction, and I saw this door. It was just a little thought, just
that it looked welcoming, so we went and knocked on it. An older woman
opened the door and she just was so excited because she'd prayed less
than 48 hours ago for sisters to come and here we were! Her name is
Leva. She thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses at first, but she was no
less excited when we explained who we really were. Her son has been
going through a hard time and he's married with two sons of his own,
and so she wants to be grounded and for him to be grounded too. Her
son Adam actually got home while we were there, just after that, and
we had an awesome conversation with him. He asked us a lot of
questions and we answered them and we told him about the First Vision
and the Book of Mormon and we left them a copy! They know the Bible
pretty well, and said the First Vision made sense. Adam promised to
read it before we come back (after Christmas). It was really amazing.

Oh and that was the night we almost crashed a wedding too! Sister Reed
is now Sister Judd and we had gone by to see if maybe they needed help
cleaning up (Brother Judd's daughter was in charge of everything and
seemed kind of frazzled on Sunday) and we walked up and towards the
gym. There was a camera flashing so we quieted down and I peeked
around the door. Then I turned to Sister Heath with wide eyes and
mouthed, "She's walking down the aisle right now!" So we skedaddled.
Kimberly called us right after we left Adam's house and she did need
help, so we went and helped really quick before we had to go home.

Third story- Last night we were walking around and just tired out and
wet and freezing and we knocked into an older lady who let us in. So
we sat down and showed her the Christmas video, and asked if she went
to a church and she said "yeah, yours!" Turns out she was baptized in
Canada a long time ago and hasn't been in a long time, and now it
would probably be too hard physically. She was very nice and said we
could come back!




The funny part about all of these door knocking miracles is that zone
conference was entirely focused around working more with the members.
President Taylor actually read us off the statistics about how
efficient knocking is compared to members inviting their friends and
it is a huge difference- with knocking, it's about 1 in 30 interested
people who get baptized. With members, it's 1 in 7. That's pretty

crazy! So, the way I look at it, if the two of us can see miracles while knocking a lot of doors (around ten before each story, on average) think about the miracles we could see from others just reaching out to their friends! This ward has seen it- two of the convert baptisms this year (about half) came from one family inviting some very close friends to activities and then inviting them to learn more. We as missionaries have a harder time talking to people because
we wear the name tag. And I know I would find it hard to trust or talk to anyone at my door with a name tag, sent by someone. But I trust my friends. That's something I've been learning more about. We also talked a lot about goals at our zone conference- setting them and keeping them visible. It's when we set goals and strive to achieve them that the Lord can trust us enough to lead us to those people He has prepared! And I am so grateful for the opportunity to teach. I
love the people here so much- this ward has been amazing. I'm excited to introduce others to the people here and help bring them in. It's been amazing.



Anyway, this week has been good. Very wet for sure! I think my bills
might be growing in. It's a lot of fun, being a trainer and getting to
work with someone new, who still has so much fire! It's helped get me
more excited. I'm looking forward to much awesomeness to come!

Love you all,
Sister Jacobs

Never Forget Him. He Has Never Forgotten You

Hello!!

Merry early Christmas! This week has been a very wet one- we keep
joking that Noah is on his way over. It's also been pretty eventful!

On Monday, we made Christmas cookies with the Willits (members of the
ward- so fun!) and I played pretend with their four year old. So now
we're buddies. Anyway, it was pretty awesome! Tuesday was a normal
day. Then Wednesday was transfer meeting! So I have a little more to
add to my epic story from last week. Sister Slattery and I both
thought transfer meeting started at ten. So we left, thinking we'd get
there at 9:30 and be early. Well, it turns out transfer meeting does
not start at 10, it starts at 9! So it's a good thing we aimed to be
early! My new companion is Sister Heath and she is awesome. We have
had a lot of fun the past few days.



The first day she was here, it was very wet. Luckily, members keep
passing us and then stopping and offering rides! We walked around a
lot and talked to a lot of people. We met someone who could be a
potential investigator- his name is Alfonzo. He answered the door and
we asked if we could share a message, and he said he just had a few
minutes, but sure! So we showed him the Savior Is Born video and
talked about how important Christ is. Long story short (because I
don't recall all the little details) we ended up giving him a Book of
Mormon. He said he's been looking for a church to attend! And for
dinner that night, the Thompsons picked up Olive Garden for us, since
it's out of our boundaries (it's across the street in the other stake
so we can't go...). It was awesome! A good first dinner for Sister
Heath! And Sister Slattery was so mad- she was the one who really
wanted it. Olive Garden has always been just out of her boundaries for
all ten months of her mission. Heavenly Father has a sense of humor!

On Thursday it was actually just sprinkling, and then someone invited
us inside so we missed the worst of the rain! We just knocked on her
door and we got to come in and it was awesome. Her name is Margaret.
She had a few misconceptions about the church- she thought maybe we'd
already baptized her! So we had to explain how baptisms for the dead
work. We also talked about the Restoration because, even though she's
from Idaho, she'd never heard the Joseph Smith story before! It was
really cool. And we missed the rain. Apparently that day (or maybe
Friday) there was a huge storm and a tornado up in Battleground and we
didn't get any of it! It was a great day.

Friday was fun too- weekly planning! We went to visit some people
afterwards and they were just leaving (sad) and their street was
totally flooded! So we took some fun pictures (thanks for the rain
boots, Mom!) and then talked to some more people. I'm still getting
used to this whole training thing. Luckily, I know this area really
well, so that's nice. On Friday night, we dropped by Steve and Leah,
who we've had some trouble getting in to see, and they were there! We
had a good conversation with them (Steve offered us a knife since
we're out walking...) and invited them to the ward Christmas activity!
They didn't make it, but it was short notice.

Saturday was definitely a different day! We had some names to visit
but nobody was home. Then we helped out with the ward Christmas party!
We got there to set up, and they were already almost done. So we
helped finish up (the Fifes were in charge and their little boy James
was telling us about when he's going to be a missionary. I'll attach
the video! He also said we were his missionaries- so cute!) and then
Sister Takis took us to Baja Fresh, which was really nice of her! We
were the greeters for the actual activity- we had sleigh bells and we
told everyone where to go. It was a great activity! The service
auction was awesome, and the photo booth was adorable.

On Sunday we had two missionary homecomings, Jordan Morgan and Emily
Rogers, so Sacrament meeting was really full! They gave awesome talks.
It was hard to tell who was there and who wasn't because there were so
many new faces. It was awesome though! Then we walked around until
dinner, even though it was pouring rain....probably a bad idea. We did
better that night though- we came inside and called some people that
we are hopeful to meet with! A few of them answered and some sound
promising. It was great! We had dinner at the Arbuckles. Sister
Arbuckle is a recent convert- she'll be able to go to the temple
soon!- and her daughter is basically a member but she's not allowed to
get baptized until she's 18. The others are not members. We had a good
dinner with them! They're a really nice family!

Anyway, it's been an awesome week. Getting to train is a lot of fun,
and Sister Heath is awesome!  It's fun to go through all this training
stuff and think about how much I've changed, just remembering who I
was when I was first here and looking at what I've learned now. It's
interesting to see. I can't wait to look back at the end of my
mission! And even further down the road. It's amazing how much more I
feel like a missionary. I used to think the District videos were
really cheesy. But now, I'm watching them, and I understand it. I
really do love these people,that much, and I'm excited to see them
grow and go to the temple someday!

I hope you all have a great week! Remember the real reason for
Christmas- the Savior who came and lived so we could know how to live,
and died so someday we can live again! Never forget Him- He has never
forgotten you! I love you!

Sister Jacobs

A Mother and A Baby

Hello everyone! Hopefully you have all had a wonderful week!

Transfer news is in! Before the suspense kills anyone, I'm staying in
Mountain View....and I'm training!! So I get yet another new
companion, this time straight from the MTC. There's a funny story that
goes with how we found out, so I'll tell that first!  So this past
Thursday was our sister study, and last transfer, they just delivered
our transfer letters there. Well, this time, they said they weren't
ready yet! Okay fine, we'll get them in the mail Friday. We check the
mail Friday, and there's the letters! One for me, one for Sister
Slattery. We're freaking out, we run inside (because it's raining) and
open them. Well, they weren't transfer letters. They were "Yay! Bailey
got baptized!" letters. We were understandably disgruntled.

So Saturday morning, we can't even focus. We're stalking the mailbox out
our window waiting for the mailman. He comes and we rush outside and-
nothing for us at all. We're starting to wonder if maybe we're
staying, but I still have this very definite feeling that something is

changing. And we texted our district leader and our sister training
leaders, and no one else has gotten their letters either. Then, at
10:20pm Saturday night, we're at home spending time with the sister we
live with. It's almost bedtime (I was actually passed out on the
couch) and suddenly we get a text message. It's the zone leaders! The
text went something like this: "Sister Jacobs, you're staying and
training! Sister Slattery, you're leaving but we don't know where
you're going or who you're with." So I'm freaking out a bit because I
am training! And we still don't know where Sister Slattery is going.
The letters are due to come today, so we're stalking the mailbox
again. But it's raining outside and the street is a tiny bit flooded,
so we're worried it may not get through. Hopefully soon! Anyway, it's
been a crazy few days. And I get to be a mom!! I'll find out who she
is at transfer meeting on Wednesday.

This week was pretty fun- we met a new less active couple that were
hoping to meet with! The Garners in our ward actually live across the
street and recommended we go visit. So we went by, and they are the
nicest people! They basically said they'd help us out with anything,
and we were welcome back whenever. So we're hoping to go over again
this week! They might not be ready to come back just yet but we can
establish contact for sure. They're pretty cool!

We also had our stake night of music! One of the part member families
in our ward came. Sister Colin is a member and we've started teaching
her- Bishop Nicholson asked her to, since she's preparing to go to the
temple! Her husband is super nice and he came to the night of music as
well. It was probably less spiritual than it could have been since
they have a two year old (who is so adorable) and she was putting
stickers everywhere and then taking them off and putting them
somewhere else, etc. It was still great though! The music was awesome.

We had mostly appointments with less active members this week. We're
still adjusting to tracting and contacting in this weather, but this
next week, we are going to work hard and do great! And I'm going to
have to really take the lead on things with a new missionary coming.
I've been trying not to worry too much. I figure, the secret is just
to love them. But there's a lot of other things that come with
training too, so I've been really praying for help with this. I'm
almost glad I didn't get any longer to freak out!

Our recent convert/ returning member temple trip was on Saturday
morning! We didn't get to go but it's still a highlight of my week.
Bailey got to go, and Cortina and the Thompsons- all recent converts.
And Sister Colin went as well! And each of them had an amazing
experience. Each one of them had a special spiritual moment of some
kind, where they felt the people they were being baptized for saying
thank you, or a hug, or just joy and the Spirit, or revelation. Each
one of them had a powerful experience. The power of the temple is real
and it truly is a place where saving ordinances are performed. The
temple truly is where we are closest to God. I'm so grateful to have
been able to hear those experiences and to be able to do my best to
help these people continue to feel that Spirit and to grow closer to
God.

Anyway, those are all the big points! I'm sad Sister Slattery is
leaving, and I'm excited to meet my new companion! And Christmas is
coming soon!! I love you all!

Sister Jacobs